Serial
by hellraiser17
Summary: A serial murderer is on the loose in Seattle, Washington. What happens when the Seattle Police Department calls in the F.B.I.'s Behavioral Analysis Unit? Can Detective Isabella Swan and Agent Edward Cullen's teams put their differences aside in time to catch the killer and save his latest victim, or will they get caught up in his game?
1. Chapter 1

"We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears at midnight.

H. P. Lovecraft

* * *

 _It's cold tonight_ he thought simply, putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket as he walked down the residential street. It was a walk he had been making frequently in the past week in area he knew well by now, fairly close to Kerry Park just northwest of Seattle. He nodded to a nice couple walking their dog down West Highland Street as he turned right onto 3rd Avenue West with a smirk. There was a nice house right in the middle of the block with a large tree in the back yard. That was his destination.

The street was dimly lit during the setting twilight, so it was incredibly easy for someone like him to access this tree. The house was dark, just as he knew it would be. He took a quick glance around him, smiling at his good fortune tonight. The neighbors weren't home either, and there was no one out taking a walk on the street due to the chill in the air. He veered right, slowly walking between the two houses. He took his time climbing the tree. The action wouldn't start for another half hour at least, and he could take his time getting settled in his spot. It was perfect, not too high or low with just enough cover that anyone looking into the backyard wouldn't see him. The tree was just close enough to the house. It gave him a perfect view of all the windows in the back half of the house, he noted again as he sat down in the little rook in the branches. It was like a little chair made just for his purpose, and he thanked his good fortune again. He was accustomed to uncomfortable situations in cases like these and was grateful for the change.

It took her a full hour to get home this time. Something must have held her up at work. She was wearing his favorite ensemble of hers; a little grey pencil skirt and white blouse with her best pair of fuck me heels. _Absolutely delectable._

He found her in a coffee shop near his work in the city. She had dropped her blueberry muffin near his table, and he had reached to pick it up for her. She smiled flirtatiously and thanked him. _Who wouldn't have?_ He smirked at his thought. He knew who he was, knew what he looked like. Nothing like the monster he knew was sitting in wait in his heart. He could have any woman he wanted, but there was something about _them, this,_ that stirred something powerful in him. He loved it. The hunt. The power.

He refocused on the house. She was in the kitchen making dinner for herself. It looked like a microwaved shrimp scampi was in the cards for tonight. She hadn't changed out of her little outfit and he was grateful for that as she stood by the microwave. She was a beauty. Her auburn hair was pulled back into a soft bun, and her figure was accentuated by the outfit she wore. Oh the things he would do to her. Tonight felt exceptionally right to him, and if she stuck to her schedule, tonight would be his night to feast on her.

He sat in that tree for four more hours. She ate her dinner and watched some T.V. while going over files that he assumed were from work. She liked to put on those cheesy Y. A. based T.V. shows. Why anyone would want to watch a T.V. show about a bunch of sixteen year old boys with too much facial hair screw up everything they possibly can was a mystery to him. Just like clockwork though, at eleven o'clock she shut the T.V. and lights off and headed upstairs. It took exactly thirty seconds for her to make it up the stairs before her bedroom light turned on.

She looked beautiful in the dim light of her bedroom. As she slid off the skirt and unbuttoned her blouse he let out a little growl. She was a rare one, he thought as she slipped off her bra. The white of her breasts were illuminated by the light. Something in him stirred. He would be patient, for it was a sure fire way to not get caught, but the monster in him would enjoy playing with this one. As her light turned out he began to make his way out of the tree.

He had parked his SUV near the park, and went to retrieve it. It was late enough that no one would be out. He just had to watch out for patrols. As he made his way back he hummed to himself. He was quite fond of Adele's new album and hummed bits and pieces of songs on the album during the short ten minute walk. He climbed in and started the car, but as he made the turn onto 3rd Avenue he shut his lights off and slowly parked a little bit away from the house at the end of the street in a church parking lot. None of the lights were on in the lot and no one was around after dark, something he'd noted while examining the area. He got out and opened his trunk, swiping the duffel out of the back before closing the vehicle. He opened the duffel just to make sure everything he needed was in there. He double checked everything twice. He had yet to make a mistake and tonight would not be the night.

He began his slow walk to the house, again humming to himself. He approached the back stoop. The bag was set down on that stoop, and a flashlight was procured from his pocket. He held the light between his teeth as he opened the bag. Inside was everything he would need; rope, plastic wrap, etc. But he would first need the little kit in the back pouch of the bag, a rag that he had coated in Chloroform and placed into a ziplock bag, and his favorite latex gloves. He opened the baggie and placed the rag in his back pocket.

He used the little kit to open the door quietly. He left the duffel outside and crept silently into the house. He was careful not to make a sound as he climbed the stairs and approached her bedroom. The rag was removed quietly from his back pocket as he approached her thankfully open bedroom door. Again, he smirked at his luck. He approached the bed cautiously. She was illuminated by the glow from her clock, the blanket down around her hips, and her hair around her head. She had just barely fallen asleep, and that was when he pounced, pressing the rag to her mouth. He watched the fear in her eyes. He held her down as she struggled and finally went limp against his hands.


	2. Chapter 2

"Crime butchers innocence to secure a throne, and innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime."

~Maximilien Robespierre

* * *

It was three o'clock in the morning and Detective Isabella Swan was startled out of her light sleep by the ringing of her phone. She rolled over, grabbed the phone off the nightstand, and checked the caller I.D. She sighed and wiped the sleep from her eyes before quickly answering the phone.

"'Lo?" she asked in a scratchy voice.

"Bella, we found another one," the voice of Bella's partner Jacob answered.

"Fuck. Where?" Bella asked, instantly awake and sitting up against her headboard.

"Third Avenue West near the needle," Jake told her.

"You're sure it's him?" she asked as she threw the covers off of herself.

"Same M.O. She's got red hair. She's small. She was… raped, cut. The same way the others were," Jake said with a nervous tone in his voice.

"I'll be there in twenty minutes. You want any coffee?" Bella asked as she stood up and turned her light on.

"No. I don't think I could eat," Jake answered. "I don't know how you can stomach this stuff."

"I'll see you in twenty Jacob."

Bella walked into her small bathroom and turned on the shower. She splashed her face with cool water and stared into her tired eyes in the mirror. This was the third one this month. He had been sporadic before now. Just occasionally taking a girl every couple of months or so around Washington for the past couple of years. Bella had found all of this out in the past couple of weeks however, when the body count began to climb in her jurisdiction.

Bella climbed into the shower and thought back on Jacob's question. She was particularly apt at stomaching the violence that she had seen in her five short years as a detective. She knew why that was. She had been exposed to murder at a very early age. Her father was lead detective on the "Spokane Killer's" case. He was an only father. Bella's mom had walked out on them when she was a baby. He had done the best that he could, but he often shared the details of the case with her when things got too much. She had grown up with everything her father had dealt with. Hell, he practically groomed her to be a detective. Of course, the fact that he was now chief of the Seattle Police Department probably had something to do with her being made a detective at the young age of 23. Something she had gotten slack for until she solved her first murder in record time.

Bella got out and dried herself off. She walked to her closet and pulled out her customary dress slacks, flats, and a grey dress top. She dressed quickly and walked to her kitchen. There she turned on her Keurig and began to brew a thermos of her favorite vanilla coffee. She stood at her island and looked out at her small apartment. It was just enough for her, especially since she wasn't home too much. She grabbed her wallet and her car keys and headed out the door to her garage.

The drive to the crime scene was short. She was close to home on this one. He'd had bodies scattered all around Washington State, but nothing ever this close to the city. Not since these three. They had all been in quiet secluded areas, one or two had been in the country near the forests, but these three had been near the city in quiet suburban areas. They had been getting closer and closer to the city as the years had gone on Bella noted as she pulled up to the large house. Bella filed that away in the back of her mind as she exited the car.

"Detective Swan," Jacob said.

Bella nodded, "Detective Black. What are we looking at?"

"She's over here," Jacob said, turning around to lead Bella to the body. Jacob had only been made detective within the past year, and the first thing they did was put the poor kid on this case with Bella.

She shook her head and followed after him into the house. The detectives had turned the lights on, and Bella noticed that it was eerily dark as she followed Jacob up the stairs. There was a room that very clearly had plastic wrap taped to the floor. One of his signatures. Jacob stepped into the room with a sorry look back at Bella. Bella took a deep breath and followed Jacob into the room. As soon as she entered her eyes shot in ten different directions, but Bella took a deep breath to calm herself.

She decided to first examine the room. There was plastic wrap taped to everything except for the carpet. This was something different that he had been doing. The more he practiced the less he needed because he had to know where the blood was going. He was smart and learned easily. Nothing else was touched besides the bed, or so it seemed.

Bella looked over the body. She was gorgeous. Long straight auburn hair, and a small lithe body. It was obvious she was a working class girl who knew how to take care of herself. She had money.

"Hand me a pair of gloves," Bella demanded of Jacob.

"What did you find?" he asked her.

Bella had noticed that the girl's right hand that had been tied to the headboard had something dark in it. Bella maneuvered it out of her grasp. It appeared to be a black piece of fabric. Bella examined it and held it out to Jacob, who had also put on gloves at the time.

"What does this look like to you?" she asked him.

Jacob held it up to the light and looked at it closely. "A piece of shirt?"

Bella's phone rang. She discarded the gloves and answered it.

"Bella?" a gruff voice asked.

"Chief," Bella answered.

"Can you come into the station?"

"He's killed another girl dad. I…" Bella began.

"I know. That's why I need to talk to you," Chief Swan told her.

"I'll be right in," she replied. "That was the Chief," Bella told Jacob.

"I figured. So shirt?" he asked, waving the little piece of fabric around.

"I think so too. Bag it. That's something I'd like to look at later. Tell the boys to take pictures of everything; under the bed and dressers, her closet, the downstairs. Everything. Then they can take anything they find back to the lab. Anything that looks unusual or out of place needs to be noted."

"They know Bella," Jacob said.

"I'll look at everything once I talk to the chief," she told him.

She left Jacob to handle the scene and hopped in her car on her way to the station in downtown Seattle. With morning traffic she made it to the station in about twenty minutes. It was seven o'clock in the morning, and Bella was unusually anxious. She had a bad feeling. As she got out of the car and walked into the station, she wiped at her suit nervously. Charlie may have been her dad, but he had higher expectations for her than any of the other detectives on the force. Bella had a lot of things to live up to.

She knocked quietly on the door and poked her head in. Charlie had his head down, looking at paperwork, but he looked up when Bella knocked.

"Bells. Come in and sit down" Charlie told her gesturing to the chair in front of his desk.

"What's up, Chief?" Bella asked her father quietly.

"Bella, as much as I hate to say this I think that you may need some help on this case," the Chief said folding his hands under his chin.

"You can't be serious. What are you going to do assign another detective to work with me? Dad I'm the best person on the team for this case. I know him. I've been working non- stop on this case since you put it on my desk a few weeks ago," Bella said defensively.

"You are the best detective for this case, and I believe that. However, things are getting worse with this guy and the public is getting more and more uneasy. I have an old friend from the department whose son is a member of the F.B.I.'s Behavioral Analysis Unit. It is their job to track down these kinds of high risk killers. It might help you establish a better profile and get a new perspective on the guy," Charlie explained.

"But…"

"No buts Bella. I've called them and they'll be here in the morning. I want you and Jacob to get all of your information and files ready for them. Organize as much info on the victims, crime scenes, and the killer as you can," Charlie ordered.

"Yes sir," Bella said standing up from the chair and turning to check the office.

"Bella," Charlie called as she had her hand on the door. She turned to look at the Chief. "This is not me thinking you can't do your job, understand? This is me doing my best as a Chief to help my detectives catch a killer. The B.A.U. will follow your lead. They are just consultants on this case. It's still your jurisdiction."

Bella nodded once to the Chief and opened the door. She walked lightly over to her desk and picked up the phone.

"Jake?" she asked as a male voice answered her partner's phone.

"Yeah, Bella?"

"Get back here. We have some things to do today by orders of the Chief," Bella informed him.

"You okay?" Jake asked, hearing the clipped tone to Bella's voice.

She sighed. "I'll tell you about it when you get back."

* * *

I know that I haven't updated in over a year, so all apologies are in order for that. However, I am a college woman who works two jobs and is a collegiate athlete. Time is something I very rarely have. This summer my job allows me to work mornings, which means I have more time on my hands at night and in the afternoon. I will try to update with much more frequency for the summer now that I have time. Again, I'm so so sorry I sucked at updating because I really love this story idea.

~Hellraiser


End file.
